Do College Graduates Serving as Village Officials Help Rural China?

Guojun He and Shaoda Wang ()
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Shaoda Wang: Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, UC Berkeley

No 2016-39, HKUST IEMS Working Paper Series from HKUST Institute for Emerging Market Studies

Abstract: This study estimates the effect of improved bureaucrat quality on poverty alleviation by exploring a unique human capital reallocation policy in China -- the "College Graduate Village Officials" (CGVOs) program. We find that introducing CGVOs into the village governance system improves the targeting and implementation of central government's social assistance programs. CGVOs help eligible poor households understand and apply for relevant subsidies, thus increase the number of pro-poor program beneficiaries. Further analysis suggests that CGVOs improve the quality rather than the quantity of village bureaucrats, and their presence reduces elite capture of pro-poor programs.

Keywords: College Graduate Village Officials; Pro-Poor Program; Rural Development; Rural Governance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 66 pages
Date: 2016-11, Revised 2016-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-cna and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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http://iems.ust.hk/assets/publications/working-papers-2016/iemswp2016-39.pdf First version, 2016 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Do College Graduates Serving as Village Officials Help Rural China? (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hku:wpaper:201639

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